One day, we’ll laugh: Marlins 7, Phillies 1

I assure you, there are good times ahead for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022. Even the best baseball teams endure some rough patches throughout a 162-game season, and there is simply too much talent on the roster for the team to play bad baseball for very long. Of course, acknowledging that truth doesn’t make it much easier to watch awful games like Friday night’s when the Phillies lost to the Marlins 7-1.

This game was bad right from the start. In the top of the first, the Phillies did that thing that they do so often: Get a couple of baserunners aboard but fail to get any of them home. In the bottom of the inning, the Marlins didn’t have that problem. They scored two runs, which would be all they’d need for victory.

Mind you, that didn’t keep them from scoring more runs. Zach Eflin got the start for the Phillies, and the Marlins had their way with him, racking up six hits and four runs in four innings. Nick Nelson followed in relief, and unlike Monday night when he was able to keep the Phillies in the game, he allowed three more runs in two innings, ending any sense of drama.

The Phillies offense couldn’t get much going all night. Much like most of their games so far this season, they’d get a baserunner here and there, sometimes even two. But they couldn’t get a hit when they really needed one, going 0-9 with runners in scoring position. Their lone run came via a Nick Castellanos homer, well after the outcome was decided.

In a way, Friday night’s result was fitting. It was Jackie Robinson Day, and considering the Phillies’ franchise’s infamous treatment of Robinson, maybe it was karmic revenge for them to get their butts handed to them so soundly.

The Phillies have now lost four games in a row and looked mostly pathetic in doing so. But don’t give up hope yet. With 154 games left in the season, the Phillies have plenty of time to turn things around. However, if they’re going to play as poorly as they did on Friday night, I wouldn’t blame anyone if they chose to avert their eyes until that turnaround actually starts to happen.